Harbor stuns Los Al

LOS ALAMITOS — On a tiny piece of paper crumbled inside Alesha Young’s right shoe was all the motivation she needed, words she knew by heart.

The rest of her Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball teammates slipped the quote into their sneakers like they usually do. But these words didn’t belong to a famous writer, or poet, but to a volleyball player.

“We knew we were going to win,” Young said of the quote attributed to a Los Alamitos player on Oct. 11.

That was the last time the Sailors had met Los Alamitos, losing at home in five games. A big Sunset League loss because the next showdown was at Los Alamitos, the back-to-back defending CIF State Division I champ.

This time, the match with league championship implications wouldn’t last as long. Young made sure of it Tuesday night. Just three games, allowing Young and the Sailors to take off their shoes and slip into sandals after sweeping Los Alamitos, 25-17, 25-16, 25-18, ensuring themselves of at least a shared league title if they win out.

As for the note with the quote, it faded as quickly as the Griffins’ chances of making this a match.

This is the finest performance Coach Dan Glenn said he has seen turned in this year by his Sailors (21-3, 8-1 in league), ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division I-AA. Glenn knew why it came now against the No. 2-ranked Griffins (26-5, 7-1).

Before the match, Glenn explained to his players about Newport Harbor’s chance of winning at Los Alamitos.

“Hey, we’ve beaten a state championship team in this gym before and that was four years ago,” he told them.

The bulletin board material that came after Los Alamitos won, 25-11, 25-21, 16-25, 17-25, 15-13, earlier this month also contributed.

“We were definitely fired up. We heard some things said in the [Daily Pilot],” said Young, a setter contributing in every which way with 30 assists, 10 digs, six kills and four blocks. “We knew we had to win. Last [match] we played, I’m not going to say we were the better team, but we definitely outplayed them and it was just the luck of the draw. We definitely knew we were a better team this time and we just wanted to go out and show it.

“[The quote] just [gave] us more of a reason to go out and win.”

As if the Sailors needed extra inspiration against the Griffins. They were fuming before the match.

The Sailors missed their trip to the prestigious Santa Barbara tournament last weekend after the Newport-Mesa Unified School District halted every athletic activity due to the Orange County fires polluting the air and making it unhealthy to play.

Over the cancellation of the two-day event, Newport Harbor looked forward to this hectic week. It swept Edison Monday, setting things up for the big match at Los Alamitos. Another loss meant second place in league and no chance of grabbing the league’s No. 1 playoff designation.

Now a sweep and the Sailors can snag the league’s No. 1 playoff spot, because it has won five of the eight games played with Los Alamitos this season. Oh did they snag it away, with the likes of opposite Megan Munce (15 kills) and outside hitters Mary Buckingham (seven kills) and Jamie Heenan (six kills) finding the open spots.

Newport Harbor’s road to keeping the No. 1 playoff spot bodes well. The remaining league match is against lowly Marina Thursday. Los Alamitos has a tougher time if it plans to share the league crown with Newport Harbor for the second straight year as it plays Edison today and Esperanza Thursday.

“We don’t really have time to be too upset,” Los Alamitos first-year coach Dave Huber said. “We’ve got to move right on. It’s a rough situation after what happened last week to get one day of practice to try to prepare for three straight days of matches, but you know every team had the same problem.

“Every way you look at it, they just beat us. I’m sure they wanted to get back at us a little bit.”

The Sailors didn’t just read into the quote, they stomped it out.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.